


angel boy

by outsunned



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, brief mention of jaehyun, cute nicknames, donghyuck is the actual REAL angel, little warm up for more to come!, mark isn't good at being bad, something short and sweet, sorry if its bad fjhdfjhd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-30
Updated: 2017-09-30
Packaged: 2019-01-04 06:05:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12163005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/outsunned/pseuds/outsunned
Summary: prompt: you meet an angel in a laundromat





	angel boy

donghyuck’s kicking his feet against the dryer, only in time with the spins and nothing else, being thrown off momentum when a bell interrupts the pause between his fourth and fifth. he looks, expecting it to be his brother, a nineteen year old scumbag who leaves his younger sibling in pursuit of a convenience store that carries banana popsicles. donghyuck hates him, so he’s already scowling. but even in the dark of the burnt out lights in the square room, he can tell this isn’t jaehyun.  
no, whoever just came in is something completely other. they’re glowing - a boy his age, a year older maybe, dressed in all white with golden hair frayed at the edges, and he comes in and makes all the light hit him and only him. the dark donghyuck’s sitting in, only gets dimmer, and his kicks stop, giving into something like awe.

angel takes a cautious couple steps forward, stops at the first machine that’s below a working light and peels off his sweater, his shirt, socks and shoes until he’s left in an undershirt and boxers. he gives a cautious look around, satisfied with nothing, he places three quarters and one dollar onto the slide. and just when he’s about to lift his undershirt above his head, donghyuck goes -  
“whoa, please stop.” angel boy looks at him, something short of a shout leaving his mouth and donghyuck holds his hands up in surrender. he’s only half-lit by the single bulb behind him, and sure his skin glows golden, but there’s no way angel-boy could’ve seen him hidden away in the back corner from the first place.  
“donghyuck,” he says, after a couple seconds of the staring. “and, don’t take your shirt off.”  
“it’s,” angel boy starts, words coming out slow because another teenager in a laundromat at midnight when the neighborhood’s dead is, rare. “not a shirt. undershirt.”  
“yeah,” donghyuck says in a breath. “but don’t take it off.”  
“ok.” this time, donghyuck’s the one who patiently stares while angel boy’s figuring himself out. after a couple minutes, the washing cycle kicks in and he gets it. “mark. mark lee, i uh, got in a - mess. yeah.”  
“mess?” donghyuck asks, but he doesn’t wait for an answer because he knows it’s his turn. “my asshole older brother likes to drag me out for laundry at the witching hour, says it’s for the feel. whatever the fuck that means.”  
“feel?” mark questions, small eyebrows lifting on his small face, glinting a golden sheen at the brow bone from the yellow light.  
donghyuck shrugs, legs hitting against the dryer. “i think it’s for weed, but i’m not allowed to know that.”  
“ah,” mark says nodding, and donghyuck has him pegged for a completely straight guy. no pot in the house, no peer pressure into trying vape, and definitely no cigarettes or anything worse. maybe, donghyuck thinks, maybe he’s had a sip of beer. “i went to a party where everyone got completely trashed and, um, i can’t go home smelling like alcohol.”

the way he says it, alcohol, like a straight boy, like someone who’s never gotten into trouble in his life. donghyuck’s never really met one of those, and so far, he really really likes mark lee. donghyuck would’ve just said beer, whiskey if it was that, and vodka to shit on someone. mark says alcohol, and his lips tighten at the corner like it’s some bad, disappointing thing donghyuck’s gonna care or not care about.  
“ah,” donghyuck says, nodding along like he really gets it. it’s not true, jaehyun comes in every other saturday night with a slur to his words and a headache by six a.m, and donghyuck goes around house by house on friday nights when he has no curfew, and drags out kids who’s beer breath kisses his mouth. but, for mark lee, he pretends like he understands the importance. “gotta stay the model, good kid.”  
mark winces at that, looking at the space between donghyuck’s knees, the white of the machine between purple-orange-and-blue washable marker covered jeans. he shrugs a little bit, and ventures down at himself. “i mean, twelve a.m, half-naked in a laundromat doesn’t sound that good.”  
donghyuck shrugs at him. “i don’t know, maybe you’ll catch a date.”  
“because someone would date a kid who’s broke after paying for one washing machine cycle.”  
“prince charming had a castle sure, but all he really did was give his wife a shoe. besides, you kinda looked like an angel when you walked in.”

the thing about angels, is that they’re hard to tell apart. especially the ones in vancouver, some of them are obvious daylight ones - mark’s heard stories about a surname jung and a fluffy head of yellow hair, but most of them are in the dark. or, that’s when they come out. the night ones, who keep a homeless man warm for a couple hours, just until the sun rises. there’s a couple who escort girls out of parties and make sure they get home safe. and, maybe mark’s going to be the first to get his ass saved by one in a laundromat. cause mark knows, even with his bleach blonde hair and white clothes, nothing about him screams as golden as donghyuck’s skin. and nothing glints as fire-red as his hair does in the light. and nothing, really nothing, about him is anywhere near as angelic as the being in front of him.  
donghyuck even breathes a different way, inhales of his chest matching with the spin cycle of the dryer, exhales buzzing along with the hum of electricity behind the walls and feet, kicking at the door of the dryer in the beat of mark’s heart.

_midnight at a laundromat, mark meets an angel._

**©geeminy**


End file.
